Burns Beach is small, hemmed in on every side, and that is the whole character of it. The Indian Ocean is to the west, Marmion Avenue to the east, Burns Beach Road to the south and the bushland of Tamala Park to the north.
Just over four thousand people live here and 22.5% of them were born in England. The coastal path that starts at the beach runs, eventually, all the way to Fremantle.
The One Thing People Get Wrong
Which high school your children go to depends on which street you buy in, and the two answers are not next door to each other.
Burns Beach falls across the catchments of Ocean Reef Senior High School and Clarkson Community High School. Those are different schools in different directions, and families here do not all send their children to the same one.
There is a primary school in the suburb now, Burns Beach Primary on Watcombe Avenue, but it only opened in February 2022. Any guide or forum post written before then will tell you there is no school in Burns Beach, and that is out of date rather than wrong.
Check the catchment for the exact address, not the suburb, before you commit to anything. It is the single question worth asking here.
Schools
Burns Beach Primary School opened in February 2022 and runs from kindergarten to year six. Before it existed, children went to primary schools in Beaumaris, Currambine and Kinross, and some still do.
For secondary, see the note above. The catchment split is the thing to sort out first.
The Australian school year starts in late January and finishes in December. It does not run September to July. If you are arriving mid year your children will be joining part way through, and if you are timing your move around schooling you are aiming at January rather than September.
What It Is Actually Like
Newer housing, close to the water, and genuinely quiet because there is no through traffic. Nothing passes through Burns Beach on the way to anywhere else, which is the advantage of being boxed in.
At the beach there is a cafe and restaurant with outdoor seating, a caravan park, barbecues and picnic tables, and parking bays that face the ocean. In winter people sit in them to watch the swell. It is a hang gliding spot when the wind is right.
The nearest train is Joondalup, reached by the 470 and 471 buses, so the station is a bus ride rather than a walk.
Being Honest About Burns Beach
It is small and there is very little in it. One primary school, one cafe at the beach, and no shops to speak of, so every errand is a drive to Currambine or Joondalup.
Being hemmed in cuts both ways: it is peaceful, and it also means the suburb cannot grow, so what is here is what there will be.
If you want a quiet street near sand and do not mind driving for everything else, it is hard to fault. If you want to walk to a shop, look somewhere else.
The Questions We Cannot Answer Here
Mortgages, visas, insurance and shipping come up constantly, and we are not licensed to advise on any of them. What we can do is point you at the firms in our directory who are, and who deal with British and Irish arrivals every week.
Ask Somebody Who Lives There
40,000+ British and Irish people in Perth are in our community, across the group, page and Instagram, and a good number of them live in Burns Beach. If you want to know whether it suits your family, ask them. It is free to join, and somebody will answer within the hour, usually several somebodies with strong opinions.